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| Jim Hudson shared Brian J Hadley's photo |
Before & After: Steve Stafford shot this Milwaukee Road train crossing the Monon mainline at Bedford, IN in the 80's. Robert J Della-Pietra and I saw the remnants of the interlocking in 2010. All tracks thru Bedford are now abandoned.
I was shocked to learn that there is no longer any rail service to Bedford, IN anymore. The SPV Map shows CP/Milw/CTHSE coming in from the west and CSX/L&N/Monon coming in from the south.
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| Satellite |
I learned from the comments that CSX now owns 100% of INRD. INRD was a shortline that demonstrated if you have good customer service you can grow your business and make money. I wonder if CSX is going to once again demonstrate that if you have poor customer service you can abandon the route.
Some specific comments:
Justin Sobeck When the Mid America Railcar Leasing equipment was on INRD, I got to cross this diamond both ways. We were also on the "last train" in May 2010, as we were leaving town, the train crew turned our track warrant over to the scrappers and the first section of rail was lifted less than an hour later.
Aaron Suttle I personally think the INRD made a short sighted mistake in ripping out that portion. With coal in decline it would be a chance for new business going into Louisville.
Tommy Young They don't need the former Monon to get to Louisville. They've got trackage rights over the Indiana and Louisville.
Aaron Suttle We have haulage rights over the L&I, not trackage rights. And besides that when they decided to abandon the route to Louisville it just cut off another artery that could have served for new business growth. We had trackage rights from Bedford to Louisville via CSX. CSX now owns 100% of INRD.
So it sounds like INRD is the one that ripped out the Monon route between Bedford and Louisville in May, 2010, before they were bought by CSX. (INRD has some other routes in Indiana.)
Update:
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| Mark Hinsdale posted
Better Days in Bedford...
Here is a photo that may be of interest to Monon and Milwaukee Road fans. From the leading F Unit of a northbound CSX Inspection Train, here is a snapshot of what Bedford IN looked like back in December, 1989. A clear signal is beckoning the train northward, and the switch leading to the ex Milwaukee Road (by this time Soo Line) route to Latta, Terre Haute and Chicago is in the foreground. Bedford was the northern point at which Milwaukee Road's "Southeastern" trains to and from Louisville assumed trackage rights over the Monon between the two cities. The station is still in railroad use and appears to be in reasonably good condition. Sadly, this has all changed today, with the ex Monon main line our train is on gone, the ex Milwaukee Road line out of service, and the attractive, tile roofed station now quite shabby and surrounded by clutter and debris. Photo by Mark Hinsdale
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| Malachi Brazzel posted L&N 1602 arriving in Bedford May, 29th 1977 Taken from Lawrence county then and now Jay Runkle: Crossing flashers on the order board, interesting... |
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| Robert Brummett posted This photograph was taken by Richard Koenig on May 7th 1977, downtown Bedford,Dennis DeBruler Wow. Looking at a satellite image, I see the tracks are still in J Street. Monon must have liked street running because they originally went through Lafayette on a street. And in New Albany, they still go down Charles, 15th, and Vincennes Streets. |
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| Dave Arganbright posted NB SBD train heads into downtown Bedford on March 23, 1984. My photo. Quite conveniently for this photographer, a gon was first out, which provides more depth to the consist. Note that 1503 still retains its single pane cab window. Jason Lambert With a trio of U25C'S to boot!James Craig Growing up in Bedford I spent hours sitting on that grassy bank on the right during the 60’s. Watching RS-2s, F-3s, C-628s, C-420s struggle northbound and coast southbound.James Craig I would like to have some video!!! You would not believe how fast the southbound trains would fly! The engines traveled the required 8 mph but by the time the caboose arrived it was 30 - 35 mph! |
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| Dave Arganbright posted 24 rolls through the streets of Bedford, IN on July 22, 1982. Raiders of the Lost Ark is currently playing at the Cinema. My photo. [A Milwukee train on the Monon tracks is a reminder that L&N was forced to give Milwaukee Road trackage rights to Louisville as a condition for letting L&N aquire the Monon.] |
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| Robert Brummett posted Bedford Indiana action, circa 1971. Multiple unit lash up arriving at Bedford with a southbound freight. [Downtown is soon going to have a train in its street for a long time if all of that power is working because that means the train is long, but because it is street running, it will have to move slowly.] |
TODO: I need to turn the other Bedford post into a depots post and this one into a railroad hub post.
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| 1957 Oolitic & Bedford West and 158 Bartlettsville & Bedford East Quadrangles @ 1:24,000 |
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| Dennis DeBruler posted
I've begun trying to figure out the railroad scene, or lack of it, in Bedford, IN. Why is the stretch of Monon through town and a little south of Bedford shown as not abandoned but the segment from Yackey to Mitchel is abandoned? That street-running stretch is no longer connected to the outside world. And I don't know of any tourist train operation in Bedford.
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The Monon track "has been embargoed for the last 10 or so years, between Bedford Ind and New Albany Ind (Louisville)."
The last train on the Southeastern between Crane and Bedford - including the last movement to go through Indian Springs tunnel.
1984 Milwaukee street running
Nhat Quan V. Do When did this line go out of service? [not answered after 30 weeks]
Last traffic between Seymour and Bedford
Jon Appleton The last traffic was Vietnam munitions from Crane handed over to the Penn Central or B&O at Seymour. After the war ended almost no trains. Until track ripped up. I don’t think there was much local traffic. I only recall seeing boxcars which would have had munitions.
Jon Appleton Last time I saw a train was in 76 or 77. Chessie ran some detour trains to Bedford for some reason over the line. Because of the crane traffic the rail was in very nice shape and very heavy rail which is why it got pulled up quickly for reuse elsewhere.
[It never occurred to me that a branch having good rail would speed up its abandonment.]
Jon Appleton There was no restriction on speed up to the end. The trains went very fast. Unfortunately there were a few deaths caused by people running into the trains crossing tracks in Cortland and Surprise (the town) as when the trains did run they were not slow and no one was looking anymore.
1982 Milwaukee street running
The Monon still had two tracks in the early 80's.
South of the depot, the L&N/Monon tracks went into the street. Milwaukee got trackage rites on the Monon to Louisville.
Southern power on a Milwaukee train in Bedford in d1978 They were not runthroughs, they were leased ex-Southern.
Eric Powell Southern management should’ve bought the Monon when it had the chance. But that’s another story.
Eric Berg
I've seen photos of trains across the SE around this time frame with Southern power. Nice photos.
Jon Appleton There was no restriction on speed up to the end. The trains went very fast. Unfortunately there were a few deaths caused by people running into the trains crossing tracks in Cortland and Surprise (the town) as when the trains did run they were not slow and no one was looking anymore.
1982 Milwaukee street running
The Monon still had two tracks in the early 80's.
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| One of four photos posted by Eric Berg A great view of the SI shops, showing the 10-stall roundhouse, shops, and many engines, freight cars and a passenger car, ca. 1908. |
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| safe_image for M Leachman Having just entered the former Monon Road (presently, in 1983, L&N) mainline from Chicago on trackage rights, a southbound Terre Haute to Louisville manifest tiptoes along J Street while obeying the traffic signals in downtown Bedford, Indiana on this iconic stretch of street running. Sadly, while this unique mile of trackage hosted its last regular movement in the summer of 2009, the tracks on J Street still remain as of October 2016 - but with the former Monon main having been severed just to the north of this location in 1993, and the former Milwaukee (more recently the SOO Line/CP Latta Subdivision) from Bedford to Crane having been pulled out in favor of a 'rail trail' as of 2010, these now-rusty rails are truly a road to nowhere. So it goes within the realm of what has become a southern Indiana railroad wasteland! Posted by Tom Farence on October 27, 2016 I was Road Foreman for the MILW/SOO South Eastern Division (CTH&SE) from Chicago to Bedford in 85/86 and as I recall the train operation did not follow the"traffic light" signals for vehicular traffic but the line had automatic block semaphore signals on the old Monon(L&N) at the time. Our trains went around a 100 car balloon track on the north side of town at the old Milwaukee Road yard before entering the (L&N) trackage. Our line(MILW) originally went all the way to Seymour,IN.. Posted by Chris Kilroy on October 27, 2016 As I understand it Tom, the traffic signals were interfaced with a track circuit so, as long as everything was working properly, a train would run on "green lights" all the way along J Street, with the traffic lights on the intersecting streets showing red to stop crossing vehicular traffic until the train cleared. J Street was a one-way street southbound, thus the unique traffic lights visible in the photo that have the normal R/Y/G setup for southbound vehicular traffic and only a green light for northbound railroad traffic. |
Southern power on a Milwaukee train in Bedford in d1978 They were not runthroughs, they were leased ex-Southern.
Eric Powell Southern management should’ve bought the Monon when it had the chance. But that’s another story.
Eric Berg
I've seen photos of trains across the SE around this time frame with Southern power. Nice photos.
CSX owned 85% of INRD before INRD purchased the Latta Sub from CP.
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